Shakur Stevenson Calls Out Emanuel Navarrete

Shakur Stevenson has called out Mexican Emanuel Navarrete for his next opponent.

The WBC lightweight champion wants to banish the memories of his last performance against Edwin De Los Santos. Despite winning the vacant WBC belt, Shakur’s performance was heavily criticized. He fought on the outside for most of the fight while De Los Santos struggled to cut the ring off. That earned Stevenson a chorus of boos during the fight.

It turned out Stevenson arrived in the fight with a hand injury. But the performance earned Shakur criticism from Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, who were displeased by what they had seen. That naturally damaged Shakur’s commercial value as there was a perception fans would not pay to come and watch him. A fight with Navarrete would change that.

Navarrete is an aggressive fighter who likes to go on the front foot. Shakur may have no option but to engage if he can cut the ring off. Navarrete is on an impressive run of form. He only has one defeat in his 40 fights. 38 of those wins include 31 stoppages. Stevenson will have to change his style somewhat against Navarrete, as fighting in the same manner as the De Los Santos fight won’t get him new fans.

Stevenson Vs. Navarrate

Stevenson needs to deliver a performance, given the perception that has emerged about his skills. Teofimo Lopez was also very vocal about how poor he felt Shakur looked. The ‘Takeover’ has struggled to get the big paydays he seeks, despite being a two-weight world champion. Lopez’s antics and style appeal more to the eye than Stevenson from an offensive standpoint. He made that clear when he hit out at Stevenson’s performance.

“Do you guys still want to see a four million dollar man put you guys to sleep? Of course I’m talking about Shakur. If you want to see entertainment, pay the man for entertainment. I give it all different types of skills,” Lopez said

Stevenson On Lopez

Since Lopez was in attendance at the venue, Shakur had a few choice words to say about it. He expanded on how the pair had been exchanging messages on social media with a view to him attending the fight. There was also discussion about a potential fight between them. Therefore, Lopez’s comments about him did not sit well with Shakur.

“He’s fake. Fake. That was some fake a*8 s**t. I knew he was coming to the fight. Me and him was talking in the DMs about our kids, some real s**t. Then, you get on camera…I said to him ‘yo, you little.’ I told him already in the DMs, we’re gonna fight each other. 

“Hell nah [I didn’t expect him to say what he said.] Why do that? Nobody made you do that, there wasn’t any purpose, that was out of nowhere ‘okay I’m hating.’ He’s on some hating s**t. There’s no reason, there’s no beef. Even when I played with him in the dressing room, I wasn’t serious,” Shakur said

‘Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com’